Apparatus for feeding filling threads to a warp knitting machine

ABSTRACT

A feed mechanism for feeding lengths of weft thread on chains to a weft inserted warp knitting machine in which threads from packages rotating on a turntable pass through arms for each package and are transferred to an auxiliary chain provided with clamping thread transfer pins which carry one end of each of the threads across the knitting machine to the far weft carrier chain while the rotating arms carry the other ends to the near feeding chain. The weft thread thus strung across from chain to chain is clamped on the chain, and at the near feeding chain the thread is cut.

Unite States Patent 1 3,699,783 Qarman 1 Oct. 24, 1972 [54] APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FILLING FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS THREADS TO A WARP KNITTING MACHINE [72] Inventor: Alexander J. Carmen, Athens, Ga.

[73] Assignee: J. P. Stevens & Co., lnc., New York,

[22] Filed: Oct. 20, 1969 21] Appl. No.: 867,524

[52] US. Cl. ..66/84, 28/1 CL, 156/439 [51] Int. Cl. ..D04b 23/12 [58] Field of Search ....28/1 CL; 156/439, 440; 66/84 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,014,916 1/1912 Stevens ..156/439 1,015,174 1/1912 Gueffroy ..156/439 2,692,635 10/1954 Polley ..156/439 3,364,701 1/ 1968 Carman ..66/84 235,853 6/1911 Germany ..156/439 Primary Examiner-Robert R. Mackey Attorney-Robert Ames Norton, Michael T. Frimer and Saul Leitner.

[57] ABSTRACT A feed mechanism for feeding lengths of weft thread on chains to a weft inserted warp knitting machine in which threads from packages rotating on a turntable pass through arms for each package and are transferred to an auxiliary chain provided with clamping thread transfer pins which carry one end of each of the threads across the knitting machine to the far weft carrier chain while the rotating arms carry the other ends to the near feeding chain. The weft thread thus strung across from chain to chain is clamped on the chain, and at the near feeding chain the thread is cut.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEB B I972 3,699,783

sum 1 of 2 SYNCHRONIZING DRIVE KNITTING MACHINE/L J 1 5- E DRIVE INVENTOR ALEXANDER J. CAR/HAN A T TORNEY PATENTEDum 24 1912 SHEET 2 BF 2 INVENTOR ALEXANDER J. CAR/VAN WM'M mi ATTORNEY APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FILLING THREADS TO A WARP KNHTTHJG MACHME BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Warp knitting machines which knit in filling threads or inserted yarn, resulting in an attractive fabric of enhanced dimensional stability, can be operated at enormous speed as far as the knitting mechanism is concerned. Speeds from 500 to more than 1,000 courses per minute are within the capabilities of the machine drive. Feed of filling thread or insert yarn presented a substantial problem. One very desirable solution was to provide parallel carrier chains, usually moving continuously, to the two ends of the knitting line with cam operated, thread clamping and releasing pins, the thread being cut after clamping. However, certain problems arose. For one thing, the enormous speed of the machine, which can utilize filling thread lengths in the miles per hour, presented serious problems when the carrier chains were fed with a single thread from a single package. It was, of course, possible to change thread packages or cones by a conventional transfer mechanism which operates analogously to a transfer for connecting new supplies to shuttles in looms. This still presented a problem, because with a large knitting machine the speed at which filling thread had to be laid across the carrier chains could amount to as much as a mile a minute, which imposed quite formidable operating problems. Also, only a single kind of filling thread could be used, and patterns with different threads in alternating or other sequency of courses, such as threads of different colors, were not practical.

The above problems were solved in a very ingenious feed, which is described in the Carman Pat. No. 3,364,701, Jan. 23, 1968. In this device an endless chain moved across between the filling thread carrier chains and had mounted on it a comparatively large number of thread packages or cones. For example, a chain could carry several dozen packages, which could be of varying colored or textured threads. Very attractive designs of fabric thus became practical. The speed with which threads were drawn from the packages was also greatly decreased; for example, with 12 packages threads were drawn from five packages at the same time. This reduced the speed of thread movement by a factor of five and permitted operating the knitting machine at its maximum knitting speed. The Carman device has represented an important practical advance.

The numerous advantages of the Carman feeding device, which for obvious reasons is known in the trade as the carousel, have, however, required additional machine elements, for example tracks, rollers and the like where the chains are long enough that they can sag, and the conventional kind of package transfer is not practical when the cones are moving around an endless chain. Nevertheless, the large number of cones or packages made operation for quite a time possible before the machine had to be stopped and new sets of packages placed on the supports on the moving chain.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention deals with a variant of the chain feed of filling threads. The actual chain feed is not significantly changed and the same effective mechanism used in the Carman patent may be employed.

The present invention uses multiple thread cones or packages and so shares with the Carman carousel the important advantage of permitting fabric pattern variation by different colored or textured filling threads. Likewise, the present invention permits considerably slower thread speed in laying the threads between the feed chains, which was an additional important advantage of the Carman feed. That these important advantages of the Carman carousel are retained, together with certain other advantageous features, represents a desirable operating design. It is not necessary to compromise in order to obtain desirable new features, as is so often the case in improved mechanical designs.

The present invention uses moving packages, as does the Carman carousel, but instead of a large number of packages having to move along very considerable lengths of feed chain, and therefore at high speeds, a plurality of packages revolves on a relatively small and so very stiff and rugged turntable. Above each package is an arm extending out with suitable thread eye and, if desired, tensioning means. These arms rotate with the turntable. Adjacent to the turntable is an auxiliary chain with thread clamping pins or cups of the same design as those on the two chains that carry the successive insert threads or yarns to the knitting line. This chain is in the same plane as the arms of the packages but extends less than the full width of the knitting machine by the length of the arm.

As the turntable turns, the pin on the auxiliary chain which has been opened by a cam means substantially similar in its operation, though not identical in design to those which open and close the yarn pins on the two carrier chains, engages the yarn and is carried by the auxiliary chain to the opposite carrier chain, where the thread is caught on the pin of the carrier chain in the normal manner and released. At the same time, the arm above the particular package turns in the opposite direction and finally comes adjacent to the second or near carrier chain, where it pulls the thread across an opened pin, which then clamps down, and the usual cutter cuts off the end so that when this arm comes around again the cycle is repeated.

, As there are a number of pins on the auxiliary chain, a number of the threads are being pulled out and caught on the two carrier chains, and so the reduction in speed at which any one thread is being pulled off the package is obtained in the same manner as in the Carman carousel, and this advantage is, therefore, shared. Tracks, rollers, and other supports are eliminated because the auxiliary chain is pulling out flexible thread and therefore some sagging creates no problem as it does in the carousel, where the whole package is being moved and its upper feed point must be maintained. The special tracks and rollers which are needed in the carousel are thus eliminated without, however, eliminating their function because where the packages are being turned on the turntable no sagging can occur and on the auxiliary chain sagging does not produce the undesirable effect which it does on the carousel if the special tracks and rollers are not present. The advantages of the carousel are thus obtained with some increase in simplicity of the mechanism and ruggedmess.

it will be noted that the two feed chains are moving and, therefore, the auxiliary chain has to be arranged with a diagonal path and the movement of the end of each arm above the packages on the turntable also results in movements in two dimensions. Drives are, of course, synchronized with knitting machine drive as they are in a carousel, and so arm and diagonal chain bring the thread to the two proper pins on the carrier chains. It will be noted that the carrier chains are or can be of equal length, whereas in the carousel normally one chain is longer than the other since its pins receive one end of the thread coming off a package or cone on the carousel and these pins move up so that they are at the same point as the pin receiving the other end of the thread from the package. In both cases when the thread is finally clamped and cut, it moves up the two chains exactly parallel to the knitting line. This use of chains of equal length, while it does not save extra operating elements like the tracks and rollers of the carousel, does permit the saving of some length of chain and to this extent represents a certain saving and simplification.

The turntable carrying the packages is in the clear, and so when packages have to be replaced it is a little more convenient than on the long endless chain of the carousel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1, which shows in plan view yarn feeding onto an intermediate auxiliary conveyor chain, also shows, in effect, an elevation of the knitting machine insert yarn carrier chains since these latter slant up at an angle. The knitting machine frame is shown at I with continuously moving carrier chains 2R and 2L. These carry pins 3R and 3L, the pins being of standard and conventional design, two of which are shown in enlarged detail in FIG. 3. This figure illustrates operation of the pins where the chain is flat. They are formed of a bottom piece 4 with a top beveled clamping piece 5 on a rod 8 passing through a hole in the bottom piece. The pins are held in closed position by the springs 6 which bear against knobs 7. The bottom pieces 4 are attached to the chain by brackets 9. As the spring held insert yarn carrying clips or pins are of conventional design, the chains 2R and 2L are shown purely diagrammatically without the cams on the sprockets where the chains turn at the bottom and at the top to insert the yarns into the knitting line. The cams on the sprocket are, of course, the ones which bear on the knobs 7 of the pins and operate to open the pins and to clamp down on the yarns. The bottom pin on the left hand chain is in its opened position ready to transfer an insert yarn, as will be described below.

Insert yarn is carried on packages 10 which are mounted on a turntable 11. Above the packages are arms 12 with tension disks 13 at the ends and guide eyes 14, which can be seen in FIG. 2. The arms are mounted on a central column 15 which turns with the turntable.

Transfer to the insert yarn chains 2L and 2R is by an intermediate conveyor chain 16 with a drive sprocket l7 and idler sprockets 18. The chain carries pins or clips 19 of the same conventional design as is shown in FIG. 3 and as are used on the insert yarn carrying chains.

FIG. 2 is an elevation taken at a time when one of the arms 12 with its tension disk 13 is at a transfer point. It is above and adjacent to one of the pins 19 on the intermediate conveyor chain 16. At this point the pin 19, shown in FIG. 2, has been opened by the cam 22 on the framework 23. Camrning action is similar to that described in FIG. 3 and so is shown merely diagrammatically in FIG. 2. The pin 19 receives yarn out just to the right of the tension disk 13 and then drops off the cam and clamps tight on the yarn thus pulling the end of the yarn off the tension disc. Thereafter as the chain 16 moves, the pin pulls this yarn through the eye 14. In the meantime, the arm 12 is moving in the opposite direction toward the right hand carrier chain 2R. After a short travel of the chain and arm, the tension disc 13 engages the yarn, which is thereafter pulled through the tension disc. FIG. 2 shows the situation just after the pin has closed. As the chain 16 and the arm 12 continue to move, but at different speeds, the thread is pulled out and re-engages the tension disc 13, as is shown in FIG. 1, and finally, when the pin has reached a position below the bottom end of chain 2L, the arm will have reached a position adjacent to the pin at the bottom of chain 2R. These pins are opened by the conventional cams carried by the sprocket mechanisms, (not shown), and the yarn is transferred to the chains, the pin 19 at the second transfer point being opened by a cam 24. The yarns are then cut by a conventional cutter, which is shown diagrammatically at 25 on the right hand side. The chains 2R and 2L are, of course, moving in the customary manner, and when they reach the knitting line in the machine the yarn is inserted against the warp yarns and leaves the opened pins at this point. This operation is substantially the same as with a Carman carousel, illustrated in FIG. 5 of the Carman patent which has been referred to above; and as the present invention does not change the operation of the mechanism, this portion of the machine is not illustrated.

Since the turntable 1 1 is rigid, no special guide tracks and rollers are required as in the case of a Carman carousel and, as has been described above, the elimination of these elements constitutes a distinctive feature of the variant of the present invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Although these guide elements are eliminated, their function is not, because the insert yarn is transferred to the insert yarn carrying chains. In other words, so far as the knitting machine itself is concerned, the function of the carousel is performed, albeit by the somewhat simplified mechanism described.

I claim:

1. In a high speed, warp knitting machine with inserted weft yarns, provided with weft yarn carrier chains and pins which are opened to receive yarns, then closed, and the yarns cut, the chains carrying each yarn to the knitting line and there being caused to open to deposit the filling yarn inserted against the warp threads, the improvement which comprises,

a. a relatively rigid turntable, means for rotating said turntable, means on said rotating turntable for mounting yarn packages, an arm above each package centrally attached to the turntable and rotating therewith and yarn guide means in each arm yarn from each package extending through the guide means to the tension disc of a corresponding arm, and tension means at the end of each arm,

. an intermediate carrier chain provided with yarn clips, said clips clamping by spring pressure, and means for opening said clip, the intermediate carrier chain extending from a point adjacent an arm of the turntable to an opposite insert weft carrying chain, means for driving said intermediate chain at a higher speed than the peripheral speed of the ends of each rotating arm above each package,

c. cam actuated means at the point of adjacency to d. means for cutting the end of the yarn from the turntable arm after it is clamped by the pin on the other weft carrier chain. 

1. In a high speed, warp knitting machine with inserted weft yarns, provided with weft yarn carrier chains and pins which are opened to receive yarns, then closed, and the yarns cut, the chains carrying each yarn to the knitting line and there being caused to open to deposit the filling yarn inserted against the warp threads, the improvement which comprises, a. a relatively rigid turntable, means for rotating said turntable, means on said rotating turntable for mounting yarn packages, an arm above each package centrally attached to the turntable and rotating therewith and yarn guide means in each arm yarn from each package extending through the guide means to the tension disc of a corresponding arm, and tension means at the end of each arm, b. an intermediate carrier chain provided with yarn clips, said clips clamping by spring pressure, and means for opening said clip, the intermediate carrier chain extending from a point adjacent an arm of the turntable to an opposite insert weft carrying chain, means for driving said intermediate chain at a higher speed than the peripheral speed of the ends of each rotating arm above each package, c. cam actuated means at the point of adjacency to the arms for opening a clip and grasping weft yarn from the arm end, movement of the turntable and of the intermediate carrier chain being in opposite directions, whereby yarn is pulled out, the turntable and intermediate chain drive means being synchronized so that when the clip on the intermediate conveyor chain reaches the opposite insert weft yarn carrier chain, the arm has reached the other weft yarn carrier chain, the yarn being transferred from the intermediate conveyor and the arm to pins on the two insert weft yarn carrier chains opposite each other, and d. means for cutting the end of the yarn from the turntable arm after it is clamped by the pin on the other weft carrIer chain. 